SHOCK statistics have revealed that barely half the 4,500 food outlets in Manchester are checked for hygiene levels.

The city council has just ten inspectors checking safety levels in restaurants, takeaways and food shops from Blackley to Wythenshawe. Around 2,500 - or 55 per cent - of them are visited every year.

The figures emerged as an independent standards watchdog said that Manchester takeaways found by Which? magazine to have filthy conditions could be prosecuted.

Cockroaches

As reported in yesterday's Manchester Evening News, the report described how in one city kebab shop, dead cockroaches littered the floor two weeks after a pest controller had been brought in to kill the bugs and the floor of a fish and chip shop was littered with built-up food and grime.

Manchester city council said the numbers of inspectors and inspections in the city were in line with Food Standards Agency (FSA) guidelines.

"All local authorities are required by the FSA to inspect all food premises against a national standard," said a spokeswoman.

"Manchester inspects more than 2,500 premises each year on a rotating programme. Enforcement action is taken, including closure and prosecution, where appropriate.

"Tighter rules about who operates food businesses of all sorts, not only takeaways, would be welcomed."

She added that the 4,500 outlets include supermarkets and sweet shops, which needed less regular checks.

Standards

Shaun Whelan, spokesman for the FSA, admitted the figures sounded "about right". "Where a business is shown to be high risk it will be inspected more often," he said. "If standards are excellent it will be targeted less. There are also informal visits that are not reported.

"When people complain inspectors will also make a visit. Bad standards of hygiene are totally unacceptable and illegal."

A recent nationwide FSA survey showed one in five people used takeaways two or three times a week. Just over one quarter (27 per cent) of users had worries about hygiene. Most of those (82 per cent) said cleanliness was their chief concern.

The Which? report followed environmental health officers on 12 inspections in Manchester, London and Scotland.

The council said it was not prosecuting the "cockroach" kebab shop because none of the insects was alive and they were cleared before a follow-up inspection.